Daz

Feather quality is made up of the amount of down on the feather, the length of the feather and the width. It is also to do with the neatness. If you have good amount of down, length and width. The bird is said to be buff or double buff. If the bird is lacking in this quality it is said to be Yellow (a term from the canary breeders).

I always keep a bottle of baby oil in the breeding room. It's good for the preparation of birds for show. Spray AIL to stop the mites coming back.

Flights can start at 2m x 1m and go up. A flight is a large area that the birds can flight in. Usually it is accessed by walking in, but this is not always the case. Aviary is a large cage where a collection of birds are kept. Stock and holding cages are the same thing. It is a cage that holds the birds while you are deciding what to do with them. It could be used to hold Quarantine birds and birds being prepared for a show. Fledgling and Nusery are the same. They are really Holding or stock cages but for chicks that have been taken from the parents before being introduced to the Flights. I hold my Chicks in the nursery between 6 weeks to 3 months old. It helps them adjust away from the parents.

Most of the Australian Plants, Gums and bottle brushes are fine.

Most of the seed mixes we feed to the birds are good to sprout. Also Mung bean, Snow peas and things we would eat. The biggest problem with sprouting seed your self is the bacteria that can be produced. You must make sure that this is stopped.

That is the best way but you ave to give them time to adjust. Many people do the wrong thing and totally change the seed mix and fine the birds are losing weight because it is too much to adjust to.

Welcome again.. Good advice from Kaz.

Giving Calcium or having calcium available in the way of Cuttlebone and bells is fine but the birds can't process the calcium unless they have access to vitamin D. Calcivet from Vetafarm also has Vitamin D3

Up Date: Finished. Well now to set up in preparation for the Breeding season.

There could be opaline in the birds back ground because of that trait but he maynot be directly carrying opaline. He maybe 3rd, 4th or even latter split.

Well there isn't rules as to what you pair together. There are genetic outcomes though. You can pair any bird to any bird and will, except for the some percentages, have colourful chicks. Genetically: If you pair green to blue the chicks will all be Green but will be split (hiding) to blue. The budgerigar has different varieties that act in different ways. Normal eg Green, Blue, grey and violet Dominant: Yellowface, Spangles, Dominat Pieds ,Greens Sexlinked: Lutinos, Albinos, Opalines, Cinnamons, Clearbodies. Recessives: Danish Pieds, Greywings, Clearwings, Dilutes, Blues etc Factors: Light medium and dark, Grey and Violet Each one of these act differently.

The main issue is the edible oil. Cod liver oil is very good. In my case I over did it for my situation. If the birds used up more energy or I gave them less oil, it would have been a different outcome. Now I still want them to have the correct level of vitamin A and D but will need to look at different ways, or review what I am doing to see what I am giving them. Something like this makes you stand back and take stock of what you are doing and why you are doing it.

No Libby I am still gong. I am a steward for the nationals. I can't let something like this set me back.

Yes Norm they were on Soluvet from vetafarm for four days every four weeks. That will continue, as will the Calcivet. I will be reducing the Probotics back and using it for the Show Team after the shows.

Thanks Guys. One bird that was lost, a Howard and Holmes Hen, was bought though an auction end of last year for $260. It was paid for by a good friend of mine and handed to me to breed with. He came over on Sunday, the bird died on Thursday, I rang and told him straight away. The pairing I did, as suggested by him resulted in 10 chicks. Most as good if not better than the hen. In this hobby it is at times two steps forward, one step back. I believe that you must be positive and not to over look things. If the birds don't look right. Get it checked out. As elly put it "the only way to learn is by experience (some are harder then most) " One of the open breeders in the club remarked that he had a similar experience some time back and won't use cod liver oil. It would be good to know what some of these good breeders have forgotten.

I have had a lot of problems over the last few weeks with the birds. I haven't posted about them as I wanted to get to the end before saying anything. A few close friends on the forum know what I have been going through and have given me great support, and I dearly like to thank them. I have lost 14 birds in the last three weeks. 8 birds died in 3 days. a couple were my best and most expensive birds. It has cost me approximately $660au in vet bills and in lab reports. But we have discovered the problems. It all started in 2006 when a got serious in breeding budgerigars. I learnt that they needed vitamin A and D in there diets and that Cod Liver Oil is the best way to give it to them. I would make up a batch every day. enough to feed them for the next day. It was always fresh and enough for only one day so that it wouldn't go off. Well I did this everyday. After the bacteria infection three weeks ago, all the birds went on antibiotics for 5 days. then on to clean water for two days then on to Probotic for two days. I worm my birds every 3 months and as it was time I wormed them. Sunday Night and Monday night. Tuesday morning I found a dead bird in the flight. I check it and not finding any problems, put the death down to accidental. That night I found 3 birds looking sick. The next morning they were still sick so I put them on the antibiotics thinking it was an effect from the bacteria the week before. That night two died and one of my best cocks was sick. By morning more were sick and other s had died. I rush two dead birds and the cock to the vet for inspection. She performed the autopsy and found again internal bleeding. The tests showed that the birds had not diseases. So samples were set to the lab for analysis. By Thursday afternoon there were no new sick birds and only two sick birds surviving. Saturday afternoon the last sick bird died. It was my best cock. He had won Champion Young bird of show and many best of trophies. All birds were quarantined. Placed on Antibiotics. Yesterday afternoon the results came back. Toxic Poisoning. Liver failure and internal bleeding. The pathologist and vet put the pieces together. The birds that died had grown fat from the intake of the Cod liver oil. This condition puts a big strain on the liver to start with. The antibiotics causes the liver to decrease it's production of coagulates to help the blood cot. The administering of the Worming so close to the problems with the bacteria infection caused in the weaker fatter birds to have liver failure and then bleed internally to death. I currently am working with the vet to bring the birds back into full shape. I have stopped the Cod Liver oil and only feed pure clean seed. The birds have come out of quarantine and are doing very well. The birds will be healthier, fitter and better for the breeding season. We are just over 2 weeks from the start of the National Preselections. I have taken my birds out of contention. I want them to fully recover. There is always next year. The birds' health must come first. Cod Liver Oil is very good but not in the dose I was giving it in this climate I live in. If it was a colder climate the birds would burn off most of the fat by trying to keep warm. This is not the case here. I thought I would share this with you to show that even the best care can still be wrong. By the way. The birds were cleared of every know disease of Budgerigars, even mega.

Very Nice Karen, I might have a couple to join them.

I have 3 birds together. Two males and a female (in the house) Both males are talkers, one is more so that the other. They will still talk and if you continue to spend time with them, they will still come to you. I have no problems with mating as they don't have a nest box to lay eggs in.

no not really I have another set that is currently being replaced. It should be out this weekend

They are yours Nome and Tim. Just pm me a good time to collect. I should be home all week end finishing off the new cages.

Information on Quarantine Programs

$30 each. The pictured ones are triple breeding cages and triple holding cages. Total price $60. There will be another set soon. Reason for Sale >Upgrade<

:::UPDATE::: Interesting comment by me. Well a bit of a distraction this week but I did finish (nearly) the first of the 6 ban of cages. one bank to go and new trays.

Interesting. Are you going to pair them?

Yes you could be right but I don't know if it was to that site. Here is a link http://fischerlovebird.top-site-list.com/vote353.html What a hideous site that is !!! Way to busy Terrible graphics black back ground! No wonder people are having trouble finding stuff! Not good is it.